If you visit Kyoto and go to the spectacular Arashiyama bamboo forest (which I highly recommend), you will find a small and beautiful shrine, unique in its kind: in the old times (until the 14th century), there was a custom for one of the Imperial princesses to be selected as a priestess for the Ise Shrine, the most sacred Shinto Shrine, where only a relative of the Japanese Imperial family can be a high priest or priestess.

After a period of one year of purification inside the Imperial Palace, the princess was moving to the Nonomiya-jinja, to undergo another year of purification. Only after this long period she was able to go to the Ise Shrine…

Nonomiya Shrine, Arashiyama, Kyoto

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Japanese architecture, Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center